Ganong Chocolate in St Stephens…

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are in the Ganong Chocolate factory, doing the tour and learning all about chocolate making.

Don’t these look delectable?

Ha ! Gottcha, the chocolates in this photo aren’t in fact real, they are over-sized toy ones,  each just a little smaller than my computer mouse in size and there are two giant ” tray’s” of these side by side.

A photo above both the “trays”  showing how the real trays are packed, the game here is for two players to race each other and place their over-sized  “chocolates” into the over-sized “trays” to match the photo we are given… first to complete the arrangement correctly wins!  believe me it’s harder than it looks!

Here are some real chocolates, yes the fake ones are very realistic!

I think that the over-sized proportions are necessary, if they were sized realistically, many a child (and adult) would have mistakenly tried to eat them.

(photo © kiwidutch)

The Ganong factory has what is believed to be the oldest operating candy machine in the world. It is a lozenge machine that has produced lozenges since 1889 when it was installed on the third floor of this building. During a factory fire in 1903, two such machines crashed thought the floor and were badly damaged. Factory mechanics were able to salvage enough parts from the two to rebuild one machine, It us still going strong at the new Ganong plant and produces more than three million lozenges each week.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

And then there are the “Chicken Bones” … err, “Chicken Bones?” for real? No… a sweet one, a candy one!

The original chicken bone was created at least 100 years ago by Baltimore native Frank Sparhawk. The exact year of it’s creation and it’s name are unknown, except that it is shaped like a chicken bone.

The chicken bone has an unsweetened dark chocolate centre, with a hardboiled sugar and cinnamon jacket. Today the chicken bone is still made the same way as it was over a century ago, only the length has changed. The Chicken Bone is the last remaining hard candy to be produced by Ganong.

(photo © kiwidutch)

We of course, stop in the shop to buy some chocolates to take with us…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

This chocolate tour was a delectable stop indeed, it comes highly recommended by the Kiwidutch family and their friends! So if you are ever passing anywhere close to St Stephen in New Brunswick, Canada,  be sure to allow some time to take a break here in this most delicious of places.

(photo © kiwidutch)

St Stephens, and the delectable aroma of Chocolate…

(photo © kiwidutch)

The children spy a playground as we travel though some small New Brunswick towns heading south… Sorry kids we are not stopping today, because we have an appointment to keep.
We want to stop somewhere famous in St. Stephens and we need to get there before the place closes for the day.. we will be cutting things a little fine as it is, so no unnecessary stopping until we get there, understand?
What are we aiming to see?

The famous Ganong Chocolate factory of course !

Phew, we arrive about an hour before closing time and the kids eyes light up when they see why we are stopping, their eyes light up even more (I hardly thought it possible but truly it IS) when they hear that in this chocolate factory and on this chocolate tour it’s free-all-you-can-eat chocolate tasting as you go!

(photo © kiwidutch)

The old factory at Ganong became too small for their present operational needs so they moved to a purpose built factory just outside town and so the original factory today houses a museum and shop… the museum gives the story of chocolate making from the cocoa bean until the finished product.

(photo © kiwidutch)

During the tour we learn that chocolate’s popularity increased in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the early 1800’s. Dutch and British experiments led to the creation of the solid chocolate we know today and by mid-century, chocolate manufacturing had taken hold in Europe and was beginning to spread in North America.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The Brothers Ganong made their start in 1873 and interestingly, many of the future famous players in the chocolate business, including Droste, Nestle, Lowney, Hershey and Moirs appeared about the same time.

Ganong’s famous hand dippers were women living in St. Stephen and surrounding areas, and the display tells us that ” a hand-dipper usually worked from seven in the morning until six at night, Monday to Saturday, spending much of that time up to her elbows in chocolate.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Working hours increased after Labour Day, when Christmas production began, when workers returned to the factory for another three hours in the evening. The mark of an experienced hand-dipper was her ability to put a mark or swirl of chocolate on the top of each chocolate. There was a distinctive swirl for each chocolate, and at one time Ganong made 150 different types of chocolate. ” (Wow, what long hours!)

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are having an excellent time and the kids are beside themselves with that most dreadful of choices ” What kind of chocolate will I try from the sample tray next?”

(photo © kiwidutch)

Since Dutch handmade chocolates are made from the best-on-the-planet-chocolate produced by our neighbour Belgium, it can be hard to find chocolate in other countries that compares in any way favourably to what we have at home. I was disappointed with the Anne of Green Gables chocolate as it was clearly inferior , but WOW the Ganong chocolate is VERY GOOD indeed, and is up there with Europe’s finest.

(photo © kiwidutch)

This is a very welcome surprise because we have tasted the “Hershey” brand of chocolate whilst in America and to be honest I was very worried indeed that this place was going to be a Canadian equivalent of cheap mass produced lower quality chocolate. I needn’t have worried, Ganong is leagues above Hershey!
We looove learning all about chocolate here ! Let’s take a look around…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)